Sydney Smart Gardens

Innovation Bay Masterplan

Commission to conceptualise the area around a historical power station in Sydney, Australia, done as an architectural preceptee at OMA.

Responding to Sydney’s ambition to become the main tech hub of Australia, the project team reflected on how technological advancements result not from a confined idea laboratory exclusive to experts, but an open platform where specific knowledge and cross-disciplinary ideas together fuel the process of invention.

The Innovation Bay Masterplan is thus conceived as a field of cross-disciplinary ideas generated by three main components: an underlying grid as the infrastructure for idea incubation in different disciplines; the revitalised power station as the powerhouse for technology and creative entrepreneurship; and a vast public space for all to exchange ideas.

The end result would be a waterfront tech hub that is a pioneering port for innovation, and a network in Sydney for the general public to engage with industry experts.